Tool-handle



i 4UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE W. GRISWOLD, OF CARBONDALE,PENNSYLVANIA.

TOOL-HANDLE.

specication of Letters Patent No. 11,122, dated June 2o, 1854. l

To aZZ whom, t may concern: p

Be it known that I, GEORGE IV. Gnlswonn, of Carbondale, in the county of Luzerne and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tool-Handles for Girnlets, Screw-Drivers, &c.; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and eXact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part thereof, in which- Figure l represents a tool handle and gimlet therein and Fig. 2 represents the blade and accoinpaniinents of a screw driver, which may be used in the saine handle.

I am fully aware that a spring pawl and ratch have been used in tool handles, so that the pawl will catch and hold while turning in one direction, but will slip over the ratch when turned in the opposite direction. The application of such devices to tool handles enables the operator to run in a screw, or cause a gimlet to bore into the wood, but the screw cannotbe run back or the gilnlet reversed so as to be drawn out by the saine device. I am also aware that, a double acting pawl, has been used in a variety of machines. But these I do not claim to have invented.

The nature of niy invention consists in the so arranging of a double acting pawl on that part of a tool handle o-r holder, upon which the forefinger of the operator generally rests, and .which pawl works into a star-shaped ratchet'on the shank of the tool handle, as that, by the slight pressure of the forefinger, or the shifting of it from one side of the pawl to the other, will enable him to run up, or back, a screw, by turning the handle in the ordinary continuous direction (from left to right).

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe the saine `with reference to the drawings. l

A represents a tool handle which may be made of any convenient forni for the hand, and B is the shank of the socket C-said shank passing entirely through the handle as represented in red lines, and so arranged as to turn independent of the handle were it not for the double pawl D, which is so arranged on the handle as that the forenger of the operator may rest upon it, and govern t-he direction of the rotation of the shank. As before stated the handle may be continu- `ously turned from `left to right (as shown by the arrow) and when the finger rests upon the side l of the pawl, a screw or giinlet would be run into the wood, by turning said handle. Now continue to turn the handle in the same direction, but shift the point of the finger onto the side 2 of the pawl, and the screw or girnlet will be backed out. The ratchet wheel E, is fast on the shank B, and may be just within the end of the handle to be out of the way, the

teeth of the pawl passing through an opening in the handle to catch into said ratch. The teeth of the ratch are star shaped, as they are termedthat is having the same inclination on both sides of the points of the teeth-the ordinary ratch having a greater inclination on one side of the tooth than on the other. V

F, in Fig. 2, represents the blade of a screw driver made to fit the same handle represented in Fig. l.

Gr, is a tube surrounding the blade, and H, a helical spring wound around t-he top of said `bladesaid spring (as represented in the drawing) being compressed to allow the blade F, rto be placed in the nick of the screw, and when the tube is released it passes over the head of the screw, and holds the blade to the screw head.

I-Iaving thus fully described the nature of my invention what I claim therein as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

So combining a double acting pawl, and star shaped ratchet with the stock and handle, of a screw-driver or ginilet, as that by pressing the thumb or finger on one arm Gr. IV. GRISWOLD.

I/Vitnesses:

A. B. STOUGH'roN, THOMAS H. UPPERMAN. 

